Empire of Thailand (IOT14)
The Empire of Thailand was a South-East Asian nation in Imperium Offtopicum XIV. It was created by christos200 on Turn 11 shortly following the death of Japan. It initially portrayed itself as a commercial power, but following the timeskip it declared war on Indonesia, provoking a global food crisis and rapid deterioration of international standing. Pursuing a pre-Cataclysm map of nuclear stockpiles carried over from christos' stint as Japan, Thailand subsequently invaded and occupied the Philippines, and was poised to attack Malacca before the game ended. History Following the death of his father, Emperor Rama XXVII assumed the throne of what little remained of pre-Cataclysm Thailand. Using a combination of coercion and brute force, he re-established central control, using the Japanese invasion of Vietnam as a scare tactic to gain local warlords' allegiance. By the winter of 2106, he had regained control of Thailand proper and begun expansion into neighbouring Burma and Cambodia. In early 2107 the Thai army occupied Cambodia and the country was promptly annexed into the empire. Rama appointed his cousin Prince Sirindhorn as King, although despite the title he held no real sovereignty and in practical terms functioned as a provincial governor. Following the 2107–2112 timeskip and the Indonesian Civil War, Bangkok annulled its treaties with Yogyakarta and placed the country under embargo, threatening further repercussions if the feminist régime refused to guarantee sexual equality. By the winter of 2112 Thailand began full military mobilization, instituting a naval blockade and beginning airstrikes against military targets, effectively sparking the Indonesian War. Yogyakarta retaliated by halting BulkProd exports to all countries except France, effectively starving the planet. In 2113 after Bangkok announced plans to establish a rival Indonesian republic in occupied territory, France issued an ultimatum demanding the withdrawal of all Thai forces; Bangkok's rejection led France and the newly-independent United Queendom of Great Britain to join the war in defence of Yogyakarta. When the Indonesian government was assassinated mid-summer through unclear actions, France assumed executive authority over the country and resumed BulkProd exports to all countries except the belligerents Thailand and Malta. Thailand eventually agreed to peace after France reached separate truces with Malta and the Pan-American Union, but the Bangkok-backed rebel government did not demobilize and the war threatened to resume. Shortly afterward, Thailand invaded and occupied the Philippines. While Bangkok claimed to act under the auspices of United Nations Resolution 21 calling for the relinquishment of fugitive Japanese general Takeshi Shiro for war crimes, in reality the flash invasion was orchestrated by Chancellor Shinawatra to seize control of pre-Cataclysm nuclear weapons caches, knowledge of which carried over from christos' term as Japan. Shiro escaped, taking the nuke with him; exploiting JoanK's retirement on Turn 13, Bangkok promptly turned on Malacca, claiming he had entered the country and demanding the government allow Thai troops to search for him. Malacca responded that as a member of the allied coalition in the Pacific War, it had far more experience in dealing with the Japanese, and the United Arab Republic warned that as a long-standing ally it would not respond kindly to threats against Malaccan sovereignty. christos revealed in debriefing that he had ordered an invasion regardless, although the Turn 19 map indicated the action had failed. Government Officially, Thailand was an absolute monarchy, with the Emperor regarded as a reincarnation of the Buddha and worshipped as a demigod. Delegation of executive power by Rama XXVII meant that practical control of the country resided with the chancellor Yingjang Shinawatra, who was able to consolidate control over the state apparatus following the abdication of Rama and coronation of Sayammak I at the end of 2112. Bangkok preserved the Khmer throne as a customary gesture after Cambodia was annexed in 2107, but stripped the crown of sovereignty, reducing it to a mere provincial governorship with appointments controlled from the capital, with Rama installing his cousin Sirindhorn as the new King. In the Summer of 2113, Shinawatra reassigned Sirindhorn to command of the Royal Guard and chief advisor to the Emperor, appointing his nephew Nattapong to the throne. In addition to the obvious nepotistic undertones, observers regarded the move as a calculated ploy for Shinawatra to insert his family into the Thai royal hierarchy. Economy 2106 economic reform}} Thailand's economy was primarily agrarian with a large, illiterate peasantry. In 2106 Prime Minister Shinawatra instituted sweeping economic reforms in an attempt to rapidly industrialize the country. While the government rigorously touted the plan as integral to improving national GDP, it was criticized abroad for 'selling out' Thailand to foreign investors through corporate tax incentives at the cost of local industry and polarizing domestic wealth inequality. The most controversial reform was the wholesale conversion of the agricultural sector into state-controlled sharecropping, widely ridiculed as murderously inefficient and at stark odds with Bangkok's alleged shift toward a free market economy. Military Thailand's military was a conscript army primarily drawing from peasants unable or unwilling to indenture themselves as farmers. The standing army originally consisted of 200 000 men, but was increased to 340 000 in late 2106 as part of an expansion plan by the chief of staff, "General of Light" Sukhumbhand Paribatra. As part of so-called modernization plans, the Thai army imported dated American, German and Austrian weapons from the turn of the previous century. Desperation in the Indonesian War led the Chancellor to order a doubling of the standing army to 800 000 combat troops and a conscript reserve of 200 000 aged 31–50, subsequently raised to 1.2 million after the French ultimatum at the start of 2113. Outside observers questioned the wisdom of such mass mobilization of the peasantry when the country was on the brink of starvation. Foreign relations Bangkok originally subscribed to the "Indochina Doctrine", under which it abstained from international disputes not concerning neighbour states of Laos, Vietnam, Malacca or Indonesia. It provided contingents to United Nations peacekeeping missions in Vietnam and Japan and initially advocated settling diplomatic disagreements through the General Assembly, but did not rejoin the organization following the timeskip. Thailand's earliest and arguably closest partner was the Indonesian Republic, with whom Bangkok ratified a Treaty on Economic and Military Cooperation in early 2107. Following the Turn 13–14 timeskip and Indonesia's reconstitution as a feminist state, Bangkok annulled its treaties and launched a hostile containment campaign that ended in open war in what some players believe was a revenge act for Reus's sabotage against Japan. Thailand signed general trade agreements with the West African Confederation and Pan-American Union, but suffered embargoes by Germany, the Indo-Persian Kingdom the African Federation and the United Arab Republic in protest of the Indonesian crisis. As the scope of Thai intervention in Indonesia escalated from containment to direct invasion, Bangkok's international reputation plummeted, with Rhodesian foreign minister Robert Hood characterizing Thai foreign policy as "Japan lite"."Interview with Robert Hood", Around the World, 2112 Its brinkmanship in Indonesia and subsequent invasion of the Philippines in 2113 shattered its image as a peaceful country, and its threats against Malacca risked provoking war with the country's old allies. References Category:Thai-speaking countries and territories Category:Asian countries Category:Countries in IOT14